Why we need airport expansion15th April 2016

By road, by rail and by air. When people are travelling to London to relocate or do business there are well trodden routes. The businesses of London are clear; they need the city’s airports to expand to meet rising demand.

Whether it’s at Heathrow with a third runway, or at Gatwick, this winter, MPs said a new runway would be built at either airport by 2030. With a final decision expected in July the government has said it feels it needs to put a timeframe on the delivery of the new runway to relieve business concerns.

It isn’t just Heathrow and Gatwick that have been highlighted for expansion, however. Business leaders across London pointed to City Airport as needing expansion too. A new report from Oxford Economics found trips from the East London airport can be associated with £11bn of UK trade exports to around ten European markets.

In a survey of 1,000 business leaders, two thirds backed expansion. This comes despite a rejection by the Mayor of London of a £220m bid to expand LCY. Despite highlighting the expansion as potentially leading to an increase in 6.5 million passengers over the next decade, the Mayor did not give permission to the plans because of an increase in noise for locals without benefits for the city.

London’s geographic centrality, making it easy to travel from Europe, the Middle East as well as India, Africa and America, is a principal reason for the city’s economic prowess. Companies based in London can have enormous geographic reach, widening their markets and increasing the number of customers they have. They can truly operate on a global scale. The capacity and potential for air travel to make their business growth a reality is clearly intertwined in the city’s fortunes.

For a company like Clarendon, whose serviced apartments are based in locations an easy distance for London’s principal airports, the ease of this business travel has an obvious benefit. Whether relocating or looking for corporate housing for an extended stay, a vibrant international business market is a boon, offering an opportunity for prosperity and growth. Clarendon isn’t the only hospitality company that benefits from this investment; the knock on effect of making air travel a viable alternative that can grow to meet continuing demand and capacity is an obvious benefit.

For business leaders, expansion is a no brainer, especially when it makes it easier for them to trade internationally. Doing business across European markets is a vital supply chain for many businesses. They want to make it as easy as possible for people as well as goods to fly in and out of the UK. Any hold up, any difficulty in managing and catering for this growth is something that can hit profit margins rapidly. For the industries and sectors that benefit from this growth, like hospitality and corporate housing, expansion is also important. It helps to fuel the economy and London is a place where business has to keep on doing business and reaching new places.